Senior Coffee: A Blessing or a Curse

Being a senior citizen has its privileges.  I was recently in one of my favorite Mexican Restaurants, Rosa’s Café, and got an automatic senior 10% discount without even asking.  The chicken enchiladas tasted even better and in my mind they have the best tortillas.  Another benefit is senior coffee at McDonald’s.  The cost of a senior cup of joe at Mickey D’s is never more than 75 cents and usually around 59 cents.  What a deal!

But when I walked into almost any McDonald’s in the morning I realize the senior coffee can be both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is cheap coffee that rivals Starbucks.  The curse is cheap coffee that attracts senior citizens who want to sit around and talk about how bad things are.  Now I am sure they do talk about other things, but based on a highly random survey I would say the currently favored topics are: that the country is going to hell and how a certain Republican presidential candidate could turn things around.  “Build the wall and let us live the rest of our lives in peace and quiet,” I recently heard one man state.

Unfortunately many churches have the same issue; free, or maybe freewill offering, coffee and the opportunity to stand around and talk about how nobody comes to visit us anymore.  Now I am not suggesting we do away with coffee on Sunday morning.  Honestly, I would be one of the first to complain, and I feel the same way about the donuts.  However, we do need to move beyond the coffee pot and extend our conversation to people who do not always share our perspective.  

I just finished a new book by Kara Powell, a professor at Fuller Seminary and author of Sticky Faith.  In this book, Growing Young, Kara Powel and some of her colleagues offer some very practical insights into how even established churches came become more open and friendly toward teens and young adults.  The solutions is simple, invest time getting to know them.  When we invest ourselves in the lives of others we open up the opportunity for there to be a long-term relationship.

For decades the church has had the reputation of not being a place where you can discuss issues.  Questions are met with the same responses; “the Bible says…” or “we don’t do those kinds of things around here.”  End of discussion!  If that is to change we must learn to move away from our coffee clusters and out into the world.  Spend time in the youth room or get to know some of the few young adults who might actually attend your church.  Listen and do not immediately give the pat answer.  

Remember, when Nicodemus approached Jesus our Lord did not respond, “I know what you stand for so we cannot even have this conversation.”  No, he engaged an inquisitive Nicodemus in a conversation that ultimately changed his life.  Why cannot we do the same?